Tonight I traveled to the Malibu coast, not far from my home. There, I enjoyed the landscape, the sound of the ocean and a very low tide. It was a nice break to go out and shoot for myself…no deadlines, no “needs list” or contract. Just spending time with the camera, seeing if anything catches my eye and photographing it knowing that it doesn’t need to please anyone else but myself. But since I do enjoy the image, I might as well share it, too…

Standing at basecamp at 11,200 feet, the sound of avalanches could be heard sporadically, mixing in with the sounds of harnesses and skis tromping along the trail towards the summit of Mt. McKinley, Alaska. Stopping for a 2-day rest to acclimate, I made this image of Mt. Foraker and it’s skirt of snowy seracs.

Like specks of dust on the landscape, four black figures begin the slow walk up towards the summit of Mt. McKinley, Denali National Park, Alaska. This is another of the unpublished images from the assignment with the National Parks Conservation Association. This photo was taken along the earlier portion of the climb at only 7500 feet in elevation.

Now that the story about my climb on Mt. McKinley this past June is out in National Parks magazine, I would like to share some of the unpublished images from the assignment. There are always too few pages in a magazine to share all your best frames, but over the next few days, I plan to post several of the images that didn’t make the pages, but did make my favorites list. The below image was taken on approach to the 7200′ basecamp where we would begin the climb. A fixed wing aircraft makes a final approach…

The Winter 2009 issue of National Parks magazine (part of NPCA) features one of the most epic stories ever shot by Ian Shive. In June 2008, Ian was embedded in a National Park Service search & rescue patrol on North America’s highest mountain – Mt. McKinley, in Denali National Park, Alaska. The feature story, written and photographed by Ian, chronicles his experience.